The Gunners’ hunt for a new right-back began last summer. They were keen to bring in a young alternative to Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu, and Fresneda was heavily linked – a year ago as well as in January.
Speaking of the winter window, Charles Watts has claimed on TeamTalk that a deal was ‘very close’, but it was put to one side in the end.
Arsenal were ‘very close’ to signing Ivan Fresneda in January this year
Arsenal were surprisingly very active in the January transfer window this year.
Their top target at the start of this year was Mykhaylo Mudryk and after spending weeks chasing him, they missed out on his signature because of Chelsea.
Arsenal then quickly wrapped up deals for Leandro Trossard and Jakub Kiwior, before securing the services of Jorginho on the final day of the window.
Ivan Fresneda was still reportedly a concrete option for Arsenal at that point, with Sami Mokbel claiming on the Daily Mail’s Transfer Confidential show on deadline day that Edu was working on that deal.
Watts has now shared what he knows, and he has revealed that Arsenal were indeed ‘very close’ to signing him.
He said: “He was very close to signing in January and they opted not to. He and his representatives decided it was probably best to see out the season in Spain. It was put to one side.At one stage I thought it was probably going to happen. And this summer, they’ve just moved on to other targets.
“I think they’ve probably looked at the fact that they are in the Champions League, they need to really compete next season. He is a talented young, teenage full-back; what they need is someone who’s slightly older, like Timber, who’s established himself on the world stage.”
In December last year, Spanish outlet AS described Fresneda as ‘one of the biggest prospects in European football‘, and he was on the radar of numerous clubs back then.
Arsenal could’ve benefitted from his services in the final few months of last season, but that ship has sailed and Mikel Arteta has moved on to bigger things now.
The Gunners signed Jurrien Timber from Ajax last week and he is already a fan favourite. The Dutchman made his debut against the MLS All-Stars and he looked brilliant. It almost felt like a right-sided Oleksandr Zinchenko was on the pitch for Arsenal.
Fresneda is a great talent, but Timber is so much better than him. Arsenal are right to sign the Dutchman now than revive their interest in the Real Valladolid defender.
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